by Frank Schnittger
Wed Mar 22nd, 2023 at 09:57:47 AM EST
As the immediate emotions die down and the dust settles on Ireland's great Six Nations Grand Slam, it becomes possible - nay essential - too take a more nuanced and balanced view of what transpired, and more importantly, on what must come next.
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Mar 14th, 2023 at 03:39:57 PM EST
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A Grand Slam in the 5 or 6 Nations rugby Championship has only been won 41 times in the 97 years it has been contested with England (13), Wales (12), France (10) leading the way and with Scotland and Ireland on 3 apiece some way behind. Ireland won it in 1948 (Ravenhill), 2009 (Cardiff) and 2018 (Twickenham) and it is an honour previously achieved only by some vintage Irish teams led by legendary players such Jackie Kyle, Brian O'Driscoll, and Rory Best. Were Ireland to win it on Saturday it would be our first time ever to win it in Lansdowne Road.
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Mar 9th, 2023 at 04:09:52 PM EST
- An Irish perspective cross-posted with Slugger O'Toole
On the assumption that UK Ireland, EU, and US relations are once again beginning to resemble what used to be regarded as normality, how can we expect those relations to evolve in the future? The Brexit fever in England seems to have broken and a more pragmatic and competent PM appears to be in charge.
Of course, some nods to Brexit orthodoxy may still be required to keep the Brexit ultra wing of the Tory party on board, chiefly in the form of clampdowns on illegal immigration, and tax cuts for the wealthy "to promote growth". Great play will be made of some EU era regulations being canned and new opportunities in the Pacific rim being pursued. But beyond all the spin, what really has changed or is likely to change in the near future, and particularly in relation to Ireland?
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Mar 2nd, 2023 at 08:16:20 PM EST
The political agenda in the UK seems to be moving on. The verdicts are in. Sunak is being praised for his political adroitness. Boris has been wrong-footed and even the perennially churlish Lord Frost has been muttering about aspects of the deal begin helpful.
The Windsor Framework Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the WFA) is being hailed as the harbinger of a reset in relations between the UK and EU more generally. A sort of GFA (Good Friday Agreement) for the UK and EU as a whole.
The phoney UK/EU Brexit war is over, and the focus now moves to how relationships in other areas can be improved, most immediately in relation to the Horizon research funding programme and improved access for the City to EU financial services markets.
US firms are apparently poised to invest billions in the N. Ireland economy and the Prime Minister has praised the deal as offering N. Ireland the best of all words and a unique trading opportunity in the world. Now why didn't the rest of the UK think of that? And indeed, what about Scotland?
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Feb 28th, 2023 at 06:14:02 PM EST
(Crossposted from Slugger O'Toole)
In analysing the outcome of the Protocol negotiations, one has to look at the prime interests of the main actors involved.
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Feb 23rd, 2023 at 05:30:45 PM EST
(Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole)
David Allen Green has long been my British legal blogger of choice. I may not always agree with him politically, but he is often very insightful in his de-construction of the legal issues facing Britain. In a recent blogpost entitled The seven ways the matter of Brexit and the island of Ireland can be ultimately resolved, he turned his attention to the protocol, and I quote:
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Feb 16th, 2023 at 07:17:23 PM EST
In Why Northern Ireland's anti sectarianism is semi permanently stuck in "the crawler lane"... Cillian McGrattan makes a long, subtle and impassioned plea to get away from the sectarian tropes which seem to bedevil discussion of just about every topic or policy area in N. Ireland, and bemoans the fact that progress appears to be so slow. However, his focus on ideologies perhaps ignores the degree to which any change in those ideologies is dependent on changes in the real world of economic advantage and political power.
Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole, where it has attracted the usual polarised comments!
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Feb 14th, 2023 at 01:17:29 PM EST
I had the pleasure of attending the annual Irish Association of Contemporary European Studies (IACES) lecture given by Professor Brigid Laffan of the European University Institute recently. In the hour available to her she painted some broad strokes of how membership has helped change Ireland over the past 50 years. One striking statistic was that male life expectancy was 69 years when Ireland joined in 1973. If I had been my age then, I would be dead!
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Feb 7th, 2023 at 06:48:18 PM EST
The failure of healthcare information support systems to provide a fully integrated and portable digitised personal medical history to aid healthcare professionals in making timely and efficient diagnostic, treatment and care decisions has become an open sore in Irish society, leading to much public debate. I felt moved to share my experience of such systems in the Irish Times today:
Cross-posted on Slugger O'Toole
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Feb 2nd, 2023 at 09:46:03 PM EST
Ireland have a patchy record in the 6 Nations rugby championship with only four wins since Italy joined in 2000. This compares to seven for England, and six for France and Wales, and none for Scotland or Italy. The figures for Grand Slams are even worse, with four for France and Wales and two for England and Ireland. So it ill-becomes us to become too sniffy about a tournament which funds virtually the entire game in Ireland.
Some younger fans, who don't remember the horrible 1990's and early 2000's, regard it as little more than a warm-up tournament for the World Cup, allegedly the only game in town for Ireland as the world's current no. 1 ranked country. We didn't win the 6 Nations for the first time until 2009, even if we did pick up three Triple Crowns in 2004, 2006 and 2007. In the entire history of the tournament, since 1883, we have a positive win/lose ratio only against Italy. We are still playing catch-up with everyone else.
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Jan 31st, 2023 at 11:21:33 AM EST
Recent discussions about the Protocol in Northern Ireland have focused on the problems it poses for the DUP. But from an EU perspective it seeks to solve a far larger problem for the EU as a whole. Much of the analysis of Brexit has been in terms of it being an English nationalist project. What has been missed is the extent to which it is also a political libertarian project.
Much of the driving force behind Brexiteer ideology has been the belief that the "Brussels bureaucracy" and its focus on regulation has been stifling British innovation, dynamism and the potential for growth. The main `benefit of Brexit' was always supposed to be the freedom it gave Britain to chart its own way in the world, with its own trade deals, and with much freer and closer relations with the rest of the world.
`Singapore-on-Thames' would become the gateway and bridge between some of the most dynamic economies in the world - in the Far East, the pacific rim, the Commonwealth, and in the USA. (Let us ignore, for the moment, the fact that Singapore is actually one of the most heavily regulated and strictly enforced places on earth). Global Britain would triumph where a sclerotic bureaucrat ridden old Europe would fail to compete.
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Jan 26th, 2023 at 08:48:51 PM EST
Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole where it has topped 10,000 readers and 400 comments with many commenters saying it is one of the best opinion pieces they have ever read...
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When I saw the headline to Brian Walker's piece, Rather than keep slagging off the DUP over the Protocol, let's recognise their better points, I expected to see a forensic analysis of the DUP's 7 tests for determining whether the Protocol had been adequately reformed to meet their requirements for re-entering the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland (NI).
I was looking forward to seeing what elements might be extracted from them that could be congruent with the EU and its legal and political obligations towards its member states. I was hoping for an exploration of any potential common ground that might lead to a settlement.
Instead, what we got was an expression of shared fury with the DUP, and a reduction of the Protocol to identity politics embellished by a gratuitous sideswipe impugning the EU Commission. I was moved to respond as follows:
by Frank Schnittger
Sun Jan 22nd, 2023 at 03:10:31 PM EST
Brexit and the resulting impasse around the protocol have tended to put the focus on the DUP and the failure of the Belfast or Good Friday Agreement (BGFA) institutions to operate properly. For unionists the issue is a perceived diminution in the constitutional link with Britain. For nationalists it is another sign of the failure of Northern Ireland to function properly and the need to remedy that by preparing for a united Ireland.
Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole.
by Frank Schnittger
Fri Jan 13th, 2023 at 11:24:35 AM EST
Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole, the leading political blog in Northern Ireland. Warning: This story contains links to original sources and may challenge existing perceptions
Treaties can be as dry as dust and as boring as old rope, which is why lawyers have to be paid to read them. But sometimes it is worthwhile to scan their more important provisions. This is how the 1957 Founding Treaty of Rome (Official text not available in English), later consolidated and incorporated into The Treaty on the Functioning of The European Union describes its purpose on its very first page:
PREAMBLE
HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE BELGIANS, THE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY, THE PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, THE PRESIDENT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC, HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE GRAND DUCHESS OF LUXEMBOURG, HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF THE NETHERLANDS,
DETERMINED to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe,
(continued)
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Jan 3rd, 2023 at 03:08:26 AM EST
New years day marked the 50th. Anniversary of Ireland's accession to the EU (then EEC), the single most transformative event in our 100 years of independence. Indeed, our post-independence history could be neatly divided into two periods, pre- and post-EU, although many would trace the origins of Ireland as a modern advanced economy to the Lemass reforms associated with Dr TK Whitaker's seminal 1958 study, "Economic Development."
There aren't any soldiers marching or trumpets blaring to mark the event, but the Irish Times has been publishing a series of articles on EU related themes. One such article was written by Anthony Coughlan, my old Social Policy lecturer in Trinity College Dublin and leader of Irish Sovereignty Movement and National Platform. He opposed Ireland's accession to the EU and just about every EU related Treaty since and pre-figured many of the arguments used by Brexiteers against membership.
His latest article, entitled Fifty years later, I still think EU membership was a mistake, is a good summary of his views and I have responded as follows with a letter published by the Irish Times as the lead letter in response:
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Dec 29th, 2022 at 12:28:43 PM EST
Alex Kane and Newton Emerson are two of the foremost unionist commentators on Northern Ireland and are widely read throughout Ireland through their regular columns in the Irish Times and other newspapers. So it matters when Alex Kane concludes, in yesterday's column, that many in the unionist community have come to the conclusion that the (suspended) Strand 1 Good Friday Agreement institutions - the Assembly and Executive - are not worth saving.
I have responded with a letter published in the Irish Times (second letter down, just above a letter from Gerry Adams) as follows:
by Frank Schnittger
Fri Dec 23rd, 2022 at 11:27:03 AM EST
The chart above probably does more to sum up the economic histories of Ireland and the UK in recent decades than any other. Taken from countryeconomy.com it compares Irish and UK GDP per capita growth since 1970. Of course, there is an argument that Irish GDP is somewhat inflated by the activities of global corporations located here, but what I want to focus on is the trend.
by Frank Schnittger
Mon Dec 12th, 2022 at 06:15:32 PM EST
by Frank Schnittger
Wed Dec 7th, 2022 at 03:10:26 PM EST
by Frank Schnittger
Sat Nov 26th, 2022 at 09:00:33 AM EST
Electric cars - charging ahead? Destroying the incentive, Sat Nov 26 2022
A chara, - They say one should never waste a good crisis and the ESB [Irish state owned Electricity Supply Board] seems intent on not doing so by adding an up to 67 per cent price increase on top of a previous 47 per cent price increase last May at public electric vehicle charge points.
This is despite a 37 per cent decrease in wholesale electricity prices since last September and a 52 per cent decrease since September 2022 and brings the cost of electricity up to a level comparable to diesel ("Electric vehicle charging to match cost of diesel after 67 per cent further hike", News, November 24th).
With electric car prices still far beyond the reach of most car buyers, this destroys the one incentive we had to go electric, the reduced cost of running one, which could offset the increased repayments required to finance the purchase.
With the purchase of electric vehicles already far below the Government targets required to achieve our greenhouse gas emissions reductions, this latest increase seems designed to sabotage any chance we ever had of meeting those targets.
Buying an electric vehicle now only makes sense if you have a private charge point and large solar panel installation, which excludes the vast majority of the population.
Once again, the Green Party seems to be asleep at the wheel with the Minister for Energy already having allowed swingeing increases in road tolls at a time of booming revenues for toll operators due to increased traffic volumes.
What planet does Eamon Ryan live on? - Is mise,
